FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Adekemi Owens, known professionally and affectionately to music fans as "Kem," has come a long way from Nashville, Tennessee to his current hometown of Detroit, Michigan. So, one figures that is why this musical genius has written and performed songs…

A tall glass of cool water, when the sun is shining bright, is always a welcome treat, much like the new "Sensual Journey" CD from the tall glass of cool named Will Downing. The vocalist, who has been wowing us…

New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton has never conformed to anyone or anything. Reading his Facebook posts and Twitter “tweets”, you sort of get an idea about how un-traditional he is. He speaks his mind and, should someone attempt to challenge…

George Duke is a multi Grammy Award winning legend. So, when I called him to get a few quick quotes for my France Joli interview (he produced her album 'Witch Of Love') I quickly realized I needed to milk this…

The first thing you need to know about Steve Haines is that the man knows how to swing. Both in his writing and his playing, the bassist and bandleader is a hurricane of forward motion, pushing his band into upper atmosphere, and lucky for us all, they deliver. On his new disc Stickadiboom, Haines’ working combo is joined by living legend Jimmy Cobb on drums, he of the long tenure with Miles Davis, and the sole surviving musician who played on Kind of Blue. Rob Smith plays trumpet …

New York-based, St. Louis-bred pianist and composer has epiphany. That’s the short version of this story. Maybe it wasn’t truly an "aha" moment, but Linda Presgrave certainly woke up to her calling after a trip to Italy in 2003. She’d been steadily progressing as a pianist, gigging in St. Louis on piano and French horn, and then moving to NYC and focusing exclusively on piano. She spent some time studying with Joanne Brackeen, who pushed her to compose more, and then got the call to participate …